


Second Chances

by NatalieMarieCee



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, sanctum - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:34:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21903079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NatalieMarieCee/pseuds/NatalieMarieCee
Summary: The rewrite of Second Chances. This time I will finish it. Sorry about how long it took. Sometimes life just gets in the way and it's been one hell of a year for me.I will be posting a new chapter at least once a week, and I'm aiming for 10 chapters. It might turn out to be more so things aren't rushed.
Relationships: Abby Griffin/Marcus Kane
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

He doesn’t know where to begin. Everything changed, the world ended over a century ago, Diozya had her baby, they were on a new planet. And he had ‘slept’ through it all. The last thing Marcus remembered was Abby. Abby had only been sober for five days and Vinson wanted her to relapse. He wanted her to continue feeding her demons and to be the monster she had turned into so long ago. Marcus couldn’t let that happen, ever. She had finally started healing. She was finally becoming the Abby he had fallen in love with all those years ago. So, if it meant he was going to die to keep her from falling apart again, then he would. Marcus prayed that Abby had stayed sober through all of this. He prayed Diozya kept her promise. 

_“She’s sober?” Marcus asked._

_“Has been for five days now. Working on my men, bringing them back from the edge of death. You were right, Diozya,” McCreary answered. “She is better without the pills. You can go see her now, Kane.”_

_McCreary left the room as quickly as he entered, without another word._

_“You told him she would be a better doctor without the pills?” Marcus aimed the question at a very pregnant Diozya._

_“I only said what you told me,” she answered._

_“You said she might not survive detox,” Marcus said pointedly._

_“But, she did. She’s a strong woman. And she_ is _a better doctor without the pills.”_

_“Why would you tell him she would be better without the pills?” Marcus asked._

_“Because he told me she had overdosed, and her daughter put her through detox because of it. He wanted to give her more pills, so she would keep working on the prisoners. She would have died,” Diozya explained._

_“Clarke? Clarke put her through detox?” Marcus was confused. Clarke was supposed to be in Polis. If she had come back, how much longer would it be until Octavia and the army were in the valley?_

_“Clarke found her after the overdose and pumped her stomach. McCreary wanted to force the pills down her throat while she was unconscious to get her moving again. Clarke saved her from that, too. She’s been there this whole time, helping her with the treatments and keeping her safe,” Diozya told him._

_“Why didn’t you say anything?” Marcus asked._

_“Because you would have worried. Your judgment would have been clouded. Abby wouldn’t have wanted that.”_

_Marcus remained quiet for a while, thinking. Abby was finally sober, and he sent out a silent prayer that she would stay that way. They had been through this before, in the bunker. Abby would try to get sober and fail after a few days. Sometimes, she would last a week. He realized that with Clarke around, Abby would make it. She would want to live again. He felt a small pang in his chest, knowing he wasn’t enough. But, he was also happy that Abby’s pain had finally come to an end._

_Marcus looked at Diozya and headed out the cell door on his way to see Abby. His Abby. He would have to thank Clarke for her hard work. Clarke had brought her mother back. She had ended Marcus’s pain when she had ended her mother’s. He knew ‘thank you’ wouldn’t be enough, but he would start there._

_He walked into the gas station, and he saw Abby. She looked a little worse for the wear, but she looked like his Abby again. His sweet, perfectly imperfect Abby. He could barely hide his joy, but he knew he had to. It was going to be hard to let Abby back in, after so many failed attempts. He didn’t want to get hurt again, but he wanted her to know she was his everything. This was going to be difficult, but he had faith in Abby for the first time in a long time._

_He didn’t realize how much he was going to need that faith, that hope, tonight._

With the memories still quieting down in his mind, Marcus looked out the window of the dropship. He wanted nothing more than to see Abby. No one would tell him anything about her, except that she was down on the ground working with Jackson.

He was trying to keep his emotions at bay, but the thought of Abby being back to work gave him hope. 

“Damn you Abby and your hope. You’ve ruined me,” Marcus said quietly, a smile on his face.

“We’ll be taking off in sixty seconds, Kane. You better take your seat if you want to make it to the ground alive,” Raven told him.

Marcus walked to his seat and strapped in, mindful of the stitches on his side. They were neat and precise, the way only Abby could have done them. They would need to be looked at, Raven told him. He would need to see Abby as soon as they got to the ground. 

They had told him a little about the planet and what had happened to Earth on the way to the dropship and during the pre-flight check. But, Raven and Shaw still refused to tell him anything else.

When he mentioned Abby a second time, he noticed the look on Raven’s face and the fact that her hand went to her throat.

“What happened between you two?” Marcus asked as they took off.

“Nothing that concerns you, Kane,” Raven said, not looking back at him this time.

“She did something to you, didn’t she?”

“You could say that.” It was Shaw speaking this time.

“She wasn’t herself, Raven. She hasn’t been herself in years,” Marcus tried to explain.

“Yeah, well, junkies aren’t usually good at being human,” Raven said, venom in her voice.

“She’s sick… was sick. She’s sober now. She- She didn’t mean to, whatever it was,” Marcus tried to explain.

“She was high,” Raven started. “I know. She was high, and she didn’t mean to. But, I can’t forgive her. Not yet.”

“Six years is a long time, Raven. She lost herself, just like I lost myself. She just wanted the pain to stop- “

“Pain? She wanted the pain to stop just like I did, but she has no idea what pain is, Kane. So, don’t tell me about Abby’s ‘pain’. She doesn’t know a damn thing about pain,” Raven spat.

“She thought her daughter was dead. She thought Clarke was outside and dying alone. She never forgave herself for letting her daughter leave the bunker to save you,” Marcus regretted his words as soon as they left his mouth. He couldn’t help it, though. It was the truth and he had become very bad at hiding the truth lately.

“She killed her damn husband, but she couldn’t handle killing her daughter? Bullshit,” Raven gave a fake laugh.

Marcus wanted to say something, but Raven started again:

“She’s a monster and she made that choice. No one forced the pills down her throat. She made a conscious choice to do drugs long before she became dependent on them. Everything after that is her fault and I’m not letting another fucking junkie ruin my life.”

“What could Abby have possibly done to you that’s so bad, Raven?”

“She used the shock collar on me, Kane! She electrocuted me. She held that damn trigger until I couldn’t even stand without help! Ok? She almost killed me,” Raven said angerly. She had tears in her eyes. She was torn. She knew Abby had been sober for months, but she still couldn’t bring herself to forgive Abby. It had been too much of a betrayal; too much like Raven’s mother. 

“’First do no harm’, right?” It was Shaw again.

Marcus kept his mouth shut, knowing the question was rhetorical. He tried to process this new information. He knew Abby would never do anything to hurt someone on purpose. But, the Abby that was addicted to pills was unpredictable and often violent. He knew that from experience.

“Raven?” Marcus asked.

“If you say one more thing about Abby, I’m going to float you, Kane,” Raven answered.

“She stabbed me once,” Marcus admitted.

“And you forgave her, didn’t you?” Raven wasn’t going to float him after all.

“The real Abby, yes. Not the Abby she was at the time,” he responded.

“I’m going to take a leap here and guess you were trying to take the pills from her, weren’t you?”

“Yes,” Marcus answered.

“You guys talk about her like she’s a good person,” Shaw said sarcastically.

“She used to be,” Raven told him.

“She still is, just not when she’s high,” Marcus said.

“She had to have been sober sometimes,” Shaw pointed out.

“Abby was sober on and off in the bunker. After Clarke, she stayed sober for a long time until she convinced herself that Clarke must be dead.” Marcus explained.

“How long was she sober?” Raven asked.

“A little over a year. Then, the Dark Year happened. She relapsed, but everyone was in a bad place then, so no one noticed. I didn’t even notice for far too long. We were all trapped in a personal hell then,” Marcus told Raven and Shaw. “She got sober again after that, but something happened. She relapsed again after that.”

“What happened that was so bad?” Shaw asked. Raven remained quiet, listening, learning.

“She was raped. And the guy went to the fighting pit. But, he won. He lived for another six months before he tried to kill someone, and Octavia executed him,” Kane explained.

“Who did he try to kill?” Shaw asked.

“Abby,” it was Raven this time.

“Yes,” Marcus confirmed. “It took a long time for her to even let me touch her again. Months, actually. I couldn’t get her to stop having nightmares and panic attacks. She stopped leaving our room for a while. She took more pills just to sleep. That’s why I couldn’t bring myself to stop her. Not until we got back to the ground, anyway. It was supposed to be our second chance.”

“This is your second chance, Kane. Her second chance,” Raven said through tears. Marcus knew she meant more than just Abby’s second chance with him.

The ground looked so beautiful that Marcus forgot he was looking for Abby for a few minutes. It wasn’t until Raven put a hand on his shoulder that he remembered he had plans to be somewhere. He would have gladly spent a few more minutes basking in the glorious sunlight before moving on if he could have, but when brought back to his senses, he remembered the pain in his side and neck.

Raven had told him he wasn’t supposed to wake up without Abby and Jackson, but they were needed on the ground on short notice. Something had happened during a hunting trip and a couple of guards needed them as soon as possible. So, they left Marcus in the hands of Raven and Shaw with explicit instructions to bring him to the ground as soon as possible.

Marcus followed Raven, slower than Shaw had expected him to be, to the medical tent. Marcus saw Abby as soon as he entered, her back to them. Jackson, noticing them come in, put a finger to his lips to keep them quiet. Abby needed to concentrate on the task at hand. Even a small distraction could be deadly to the man on the table, the gouge in his thigh close to an artery.

Raven motioned to a chair against the wall of the tent and Marcus took a seat. He was more than happy to watch Abby working. He had always found it fascinating to watch her even though he was afraid of needles himself. The way she was concentrating told Marcus that she was indeed sober. He couldn’t see her hands, but he was willing to bet they were steady. If they hadn’t been, Jackson would have been helping her, not sitting on a nearby cot watching her work. That was something he hadn’t seen in a while.

Marcus sat for what seemed like hours, almost dozing off a few times, but was woken by Jackson. He seemed to be talking to Abby occasionally. Jackson was asking questions Marcus was sure he already knew the answer to. Marcus assumed it was Jackson's way to keep Marcus awake without letting Abby know he was behind her. Abby never answered, at least not loud enough for Marcus to hear, but that was normal, too. Abby didn’t speak loudly when doing surgery. It wasn’t that she couldn’t, it was just habit, knowing Jackson was close enough that she didn’t need to raise her voice. It was yet another sign that his Abby was back to her normal self.

When she was finished, she stitched the guard up and covered him with a blanket. Marcus startled a little at her sudden movement but was glad the make-shift sink she was walking towards was on the opposite wall. He would have a few more precious moments to watch Abby while she was in her own little world. He loved moments like this, moments when her brain was firing on all cylinders and nothing mattered but the patient in front of her. It was a beautiful thing to see. 

Abby washed and dried her hands before finally turning around. She looked as though she was going to say something when she saw Marcus. The words died in her throat and she stopped in her tracks. Her eyes locked with Marcus’s and he smiled at her. Jackson excused himself from the tent quietly, placing a hand on Marcus’s shoulder as he left. Words weren’t necessary between the two men.

“Marcus,” Abby almost whispered.

“Hi,” he said through a smile.

“I- you’re- you’re awake,” she stammered.

“Did you forget I was supposed to be awake?”

“Yes,” she said sheepishly.

“You got distracted, didn’t you?”

“A little bit,” she said, walking towards him slowly, almost as if she were afraid he would disappear.

“You and your one-track mind. You drive me crazy, Abby,” Marcus joked. “I’m not going to break, you know. You can come over here.”

“I don’t think- I know. But, it’s been so long. You’ve been asleep for- “

“For three months. I know. Raven told me. She also said I needed to have you examine me.”

“She was right. I need to look at your stitches. Sit over here,” Abby pointed to an unused exam table. 

Marcus began walking towards it as Abby grabbed a few fresh bandages.

“Abby?”

“Yes,” she had switched over into her doctor mode again, her earlier trepidation forgotten.

“If I was asleep a hundred and twenty-five years and three months, why am I not healed?”

“You don’t metabolize in cryosleep… Do you remember my ice bath?

“Unfortunately, yes. Is it like that?”

“Kind of, but for longer. And safer.” She told him.

“You know,” Marcus helped Abby pull off his shirt as much as he could, “that was probably one of the worst days of my entire life. Your ice bath, I mean.”

“I wanted to see the damage. And no, I haven’t had many days worse than when you were laying in an ice bath with no heartbeat. My heart stopped with yours,” Marcus told her, placing a hand on her face. 

Abby barely stopped to look at him when he did this, but he knew she wouldn’t until she was sure he was safe.

“You’re healing well, but you should stay here and rest until the stitches can come out, ok?”

“Anything you say, Doctor Griffin,” He smiled.

Abby smiled back at him and started reapplying the bandage to his neck. He won’t say it didn’t hurt, but with Abby, everything felt a little better. He knew she wouldn’t tell him anything unless it was true when she was being his doctor. As she finished placing the bandage on his neck, she took the time to run her fingers through his beard and he knew she was almost done. She was going back to being his concerned girlfriend rather than his strict doctor. 

Abby placed her hands on either side of his face and looked him in the eyes: “You’re not going to stay in here, are you?”

“I want to see the new planet,” he said rather quietly, not breaking eye contact.

Abby placed her hands on either side of his face and brought his forehead to hers. “Stay inside the gates, ok? And take it easy. Rest once in a while.”

“How about I take my doctor with me? I can’t do too much if she’d held my hand the entire time.”

Abby chuckled and let go of his face. “Let me see if Jackson is ok with-”, she began.

“He’ll be fine,” Marcus said, holding Abby’s wrists gently as he gave her fingers a light kiss. “Besides, we’re not going outside the gates anyway. Come on, Abby. For me?”

Abby smiled and stepped back, allowing Marcus to slide off the table. She figured he would take her hand and start towards the door, but he surprised her by pulling her in for a tight hug.

“Marcus, be careful!”

“I’m perfectly fine, Doc. I just needed this,” Marcus said as he placed kisses in her hair.

Abby relaxed into his hug, mindful of his stitches. She couldn’t believe that after everything, this man still loved her. After everything she had done, and he still belonged to her. The Earth had turned him into this person she had always known was hiding inside, under the shell he had made to protect himself. 

Abby absently wondered how this new world would change him as they walked out of the medical tent and into the brilliant sunlight. She told Jackson they were going for a walk and he smiled at her. Jackson knew Abby had a lot to tell Marcus, starting with her months-long sobriety. At least, Jackson hoped she would start with that. Jackson watched them walk through the middle of the camp, knowing Abby was taking him to the gates so he could see the ocean.

When Abby and Marcus arrived at the gate, Marcus had to cover his eyes a little. The suns were so bright, gleaming off the ocean, but it was beautiful. The sand was almost white, and the water looked like a million stars. He wanted to go to the beach so bad, even though he knew Abby wasn’t going to let him go in the water. Then, he turned to the left to say something to Abby. He forgot what it was though, as he saw the dense, green forest on the other side. It was so deep and dark that he couldn’t see into it from his position.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Abby asked.

“Yeah,” was all Marcus could manage.

He turned to look behind him, over the drop at the mountains behind them. They were tall and reached the clouds. He couldn’t even see the tops of them. He couldn’t imagine how this spot even existed. It seemed to be such a perfect area to make a life for all these people. He knew it had to be chosen by someone with a vision.

“Diozya picked this spot, didn’t she?” He asked Abby.

“Bellamy and Clarke. No one else was awake when they came down. Well, except for Monty and Harper’s son,” Abby answered.

“Jordan, right?”

“Yep. Jordan Jasper Green. They picked a good name.”

“They sure did. Is he a nice boy?”

“He’s almost perfect if you ask me.”

“Oh, is that so?” Marcus said, finally looking at Abby again.

“What?”

“He wants to work in medical, doesn’t he?” Marcus had a knowing smile on his face.

“That has nothing to do with my opinion of him,” Abby crossed her arms knowing lying to Marcus wouldn’t work.

“Sure, sure,” he said, pulling her into another hug.

 _As beautiful as this planet is, you’re still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen_ , Marcus thought to himself. 

“Would you like to see your people, counselor?” Abby asked him, her face in his chest.

“Absolutely, but I’m not a counselor anymore. Remember?” Marcus answered.

“Here, on this planet, you are. There’s no Chancellor, we’re a democracy. Or, starting one,” Abby told Marcus, seeing his smirk turn into a smile. “Diyoza’s idea. You have to be at 18 to hold a seat and 16 to vote. Only certain people can run, but if enough people write someone in, they can be elected. I don’t like that part.”

“Why not?” Marcus asked in return.

“They picked me,” she told him, looking ashamed.

“That’s not a bad thing, Abby. You’re a good leader,” Marcus told her, lifting her chin so she would look at him.

“No,” she turned her head as the tears started rolling from her eyes.

“Yes, you are,” he explained. “You’re the leader that kept them alive during the worst of times. Well, mostly you. They always saw the good things you did for them when they thought everything else was lost.”

“Then, pray tell, why the have me in charge of who to wake up and who to kill in their sleep?” Abby asked him. 

“Because you’re a doctor –” Marcus was going to tell her she was the best doctor they had ever seen, but she interrupted him:

“Because I’m a monster, Marcus! I’m to fault for more deaths than anyone alive! You don’t understand,” she began crying now.

“You’re wrong,” Marcus said, pulling her into his chest again. “About all of that.”

Marcus pulled her away a bit to look into her eyes and spoke again:

“I’ve killed more people than you have, in case you don’t remember. All the people on the Ark, all the soldiers. Yours were different, they were…” he stammered.

“Innocent,” Abby finished for him. “You might have pushed for population control, but you didn’t press the button. You sent soldiers to their death, but you didn’t know they would die, and you’ve taken groups out not knowing anyone would be hurt.”

“And you tried to save every single one of them. You didn’t even take ALIE’s chip until Raven was in danger,” Marcus tried to convince her.

“That’s before everything happened. I knew my demons. I kept them close, and they helped me do a lot of good. But, then… I let them in. I wasn’t strong enough. I never will be. They’ll always be a part of who I am and I can’t deny that now. And in the bunker? I was disgusting, hardly even human except for uncontrollable core processes.” She cried silently as she spoke. It was like she hadn’t accepted that she was better now. He wanted to tell her it was all over now and she could be better this time.

“Those people in the bunker? We decided who would die before they were even in the pit. After? If they weren’t dead yet or had wounds I could have killed? I took them. I killed them, Marcus. I cut them up. I fed those people to everyone alive,” she said.

Marcus was a little shocked to find out that Abby had been the one who’d dealt with the bodies. He honestly had thought that Indra was assigned to it.

“Abby…”

“It was me. I told Octavia what to do. I did until the day she caught me, and she still followed my advice more than she should have. I’m the one who had you removed from the council,” she told him, stepping away.

Marcus hated to see her this way, hurting and blaming herself. He wanted to tell her how wrong she was about herself, but it was true. And, it hurt her. Bad decisions always hurt, but the more you cared, the worse they were going to hurt when you came back to yourself.

He remembered when it finally got out that someone was cutting up the bodies. Once people had started to get over the fact that they were eating their friends (humans were rather quick at adapting, just as they were at blaming), they started talking about who took care of the bodies. There was talk of a secret team used for the body parts. Cooks were blamed initially, but they proved they weren’t cutting up the bodies. They snuck into the main office and leaked the footage of one person bringing in pre-cut cubes for cooking.

Everyone with a datapad saw it, and those who didn’t either borrowed one or were told about it. The Grounders, being prone to follow their leader, went directly to Octavia and Indra. They asked questions. In a meeting, where all the governing parties stood before the people of the bunker, they had mentioned that one person was doing the work. They had referred to the person as “The Butcher”, and it became the new word for “Boogyman”. Parents used it to keep their children in line, criminals were more afraid of “The Butcher” than they were of the guards. 

All anyone knew about “The Butcher” was that the person was either a teenager or a small adult. They talked about how deranged and crazy that person had to be. Everyone was in terror of going to The Pit, but not because they might die. They knew that they wouldn’t get an honorable death but instead would become part of some meal.

There was talk about the person knowing human anatomy, knowing which parts could be eaten and which could not. The population grew suspicious of medical in general after this. A statement was read, by Abby herself, that “The Butcher” was not a member of medical and that the flesh they were eating was only deemed safe after inspection; that they didn’t know who it was.

Octavia spoke after her, stating that there would be no more discussing who this so-called “Butcher” was. Those who spoke of “The Butcher” would be detained at the very least. But, everyone who was detained was sent to The Pit. Only a few made it out. Some offenders were executed by Octavia.

This made Marcus feel horrible. He always suspected it was Abby. She was always a close advisor to Octavia, she knew pretty much everything there was to know about the human body, and anyone who had ever brought hard to Abby, or tried to, was killed with no chance of survival. Except for the man who had raped her so long ago.

“Abby, if you… if you were The Butcher, why did you guys let him go when he won?” Marcus asked, referring to her and Octavia.

“He was useful, and second crimes by survivors of The Pit automatically end in execution. We knew he would do something to someone else, before anyone had time to figure out who he’d assaulted and why,” Abby told him.

“You knew what he was and you let him live to do it to someone else?” Marcus asked her, appalled.

“No, not exactly. We tempted him… a lot. We left him chances to go after someone important. He resisted. We thought he was going to talk. So, we… we set him up,” she explained.

“The bruises were fake, weren’t they,” Marcus said as more of a statement than a question. He rubbed his face with his hands as he stepped away, the pain and the beauty set aside for this unwelcome return of The Dark Year.

“No, no! They were real. He did grab me, he did try to kill me. But… he didn’t want me dead for pointing him out of for his sick entertainment,” she began explaining, reaching for Marcus. “I was bringing the meat at a normal time like I always did. Everyone was asleep except the guards on duty and me. He wasn’t because he’d ‘accidentally’ lost his key. He took his shot. He lost.”

“Ok, so then how did he ‘lose’ his damn key? His room was biometric, like ours, wasn’t it?” Marcus still had his hands close to his face. The more he found out, the less he liked what had happened and the more he started to blame Abby.

“Not exactly. Ours used thumbprints, some used key cards, and the lower levels either had keys or doors that didn’t lock,” Abby started. “He, like everyone else in the worker class, had a key card. I demagnetized it.”

“How did you manage –” Marcus started and stopped himself. The first explanation flashed through his mind and he didn’t want to hear what Abby had been doing when he wasn’t around then. Drugs had been more than enough to handle.

“Not the way you think. He tended to come into medical when it was just me on shift. He liked to torment me, scare me into a corner. Indra and Octavia, they taught me how to defend myself. I got pretty good. So, one night I sent your man on a break, told him that Simmons was in the kitchen that night. When Simmons came by, he grabbed me, just like we thought he would. I swiped the card and slid it over a magnet on the floor. Your guard came back so fast, I almost didn’t have time to put it back in his pocket. It didn’t look right, though. He assumed he had mine,” Abby explained.

“You put yourself in danger far too often, Abby.” Marcus was still in shock.

Abby finished the retelling:

“Later that morning, while he was wandering around, hiding from guards, he saw me, grabbed me, and tried to kill me. I had to use damn near everything that I was taught just to get him off me after he…” Abby stopped short.

“After he what, Abby? After he… Did he rape you? Again?” Marcus wanted to throw up.

“Unfortunately,” she answered as his hands dropped, his anger at Abby subsiding as he remembered that that man knocking on the door that night. He had asked about Abby, saying he needed her to look at his sick child. Marcus had played right into it, telling Simmons where Abby was. He knew now that Abby planned on that, but he felt sick for even seemingly helping the man who had raped her, allowing him to do it again. 

“I got him off of me, I dressed,” Abby fussed with her shirt, forcing Marcus to step closer to her. “I ran to where the guard was supposed to be, but he wasn’t there. I got scared and froze. He got me, Marcus. That wasn’t the plan. He was supposed to get to me right in front of the guard! But, but –” Marcus put his hands on her small, shaking shoulders.

“Breathe, baby. It’s ok,” he was soft with her now, knowing just how hard this was on her.

“I don’t remember the guard getting there, so it must have been a few minutes. He’d already beat me half to death and as soon as he started choking me, I must have passed out,” Abby told him, still looking at the ground.

“You did. My guard didn’t find you, I did. I realized what he was up to and followed him. I had lost him for a while, but I heard screaming, and my gut said it was you… Jackson heard it, too. You ended up in his hall. By the time you were awake, I was stitched and Octavia has set the execution. You barely woke up in time,” Marcus didn’t know what all had happened that night before he got there. It hit him hard that he almost lost her that night, and now it hit even harder to know that she had been humiliated and abused before he’d even gotten there.

“You saved me?” Abby asked him, a sparkle in her eye. She made it look like he was her Prince Charming. He didn’t feel like he was.

“I could have stopped him, I could have prevented it from happening at all,” Marcus pulled Abby as close to him as he could, once again forgetting about his pain.

“No, you did what you thought was right. You knew he had a child and that the child was sick. You were looking out for the kid, you were half asleep. You did what anyone would do,” Abby told him, holding her own hands around his middle. She, too, forgot about his injuries for a minute.

“God, Abby, I’m so sorry. For everything, I’m sorry –” Marcus fumbled with his words before Abby’s lips met his.

They stayed like that for a while.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 came to me early, so it's coming to you guys early.

Chapter 2

The camp, noticing the reconciliation between their leaders, stopped to look. They weren’t surprised by the two, just happy to see a little peace between them after watching so many years of their personal struggles. For the most part, everything they had gone through was readily available. Their fights were loud, but their passion was louder.

When they could hear the love between the two, good times were on the way. If they heard a fight, things were going to go downhill quickly. It was almost as if Octavia got angry when they fought like she were their own child. And her tantrums had more impact than a normal teenager would. People died when Octavia was angry, a lot of people. They knew that as time went on in the bunker, Marcus and Abby had less and less to do with the decisions made, and for good reason in some cases. But this? This was a chance for a new start. A new beginning.

Marcus and Abby whispered sweet nothings to each other for a while before agreeing to hold off on further discussions involving the bunker. They needed to concentrate on the camp and the new planet. Getting Marcus back to one hundred percent and working on their ridiculously strained relationship was also on that list. Little did Abby know she was on top of Marcus’s list and everything else paled in comparison when it came to her.

Abby cared more about Marcus than the others, too, but she felt more guilty about it. She knew she owed the people so much for what she had done, for what she had become. She knew she would never be able to fully forgive herself for the bunker or for what had happened to Marcus because of her. She would have to look at the emotional scars of her people, and Marcus’s physical scars, for the rest of her life. She took it to heart but felt a familiar swoop in her belly as Marcus pulled her closer to him.

_That’s where I’ll tell him_ , she thought. _His memory of the beach will be even better that way_.

“Would you like to rest?” Abby asked Marcus.

“Actually, yeah. I would. Back to medical?” Marcus answered.

“No, silly,” Abby teased.

“Should I be scared?” He chuckled.

“Only if you end up thinking its too messy, which you will,” Abby told him. He always thought she was too messy with her papers and books and datapad. Marcus used to say that she’d lose her head if it wasn’t attached because of the way she left things, but she only ever lost them when he tried to clean. She’d mess them up looking for something again immediately. It was a routine they both held for many years. It secretly delighted them.

“You’ve been living alone?” Marcus asked.

“No, with Clarke and Madi, but they’re never there,” she told him.

“And I bet you aren’t either,” Marcus said, squeezing her to his good side, making her smile.

“I’m usually in Sanctum, going through their library. There’s a lot to learn about this planet,” Abby told him while leading him towards a large tent.

“Oh, no… is it full of all those science books you seem so fond of?” He joked.

“That, Clarke’s maps, and Madi’s… well Madi’s everything,” Abby scratched her face where a bug had just landed. _Great_ , she thought, _a swollen face is so sexy_.

“What do you mean ‘her everything’?” Marcus was curious.

“She doesn’t have to be a commander here, she’s not so alone anymore. There are kids to play with and things to do that she never had before. Stuff like going to school, sleeping in the woods at night, and, dare I say it, _swimming_ ,” Abby nudged Marcus a little. He had loved swimming on Earth and had mentioned it more than a few times in the bunker.

“That sounds like fun!” Marcus got excited just like Abby knew he would. “When can I do it?”

“When your wounds are healed, I’ll take you to the beach, but you have to promise to contain your excitement until then, or else,” Abby told him.

“Fine, but no guarantees,” Marcus kissed the top of Abby’s head.

They had come to the entrance of the tent, their tent, and Abby stepped in front of him to open the flap and invite him in.

When Marcus walked in, it was a wonderful sight. It was homey, and cluttered, and smelled like fresh flowers, which he noticed were not too fresh after all. They had been left on a corner table, like many others, and forgotten about. It was a Griffin women thing, he supposed, to find beauty in something, bring it home, and try to keep it longer than they should. Marcus chuckled.

“Yep, that’s Madi for you. Flowers and all,” Abby touched the flowers lovingly. “She always finds new ones, obviously from places she isn’t supposed to be, and brings them back. I’ve found some listed in the library as medicinal so we keep them.”

“But, they’re dead… or getting there at least,” Marcus looked at her.

“We don’t give up on anything, you know that,” Abby said, knowing Marcus would understand her double meaning. “Besides, some of them need to be dead in order to be used. These ones in particular.”

Abby had pointed to a very orange, very dead pile of petals.

“Can I touch them?” Marcus asked.

“Gently, because I need them for something special,” she told him with a smile. Her hand started to go towards her belly, but she caught herself. She didn’t want to give away the surprise so early. He needed to take things in before he became distracted with the life they had created inside her.

“Abby?” Marcus asked, noticing she had drifted off.

“Yes?” She snapped back into it at the sound of his voice.

“I said, ‘what are they for?’ space cadet,” he chuckled, setting down the flower to hold his aching side.

“For a type of tea people need sometimes,” Abby told him. “Now, come lie down and get some rest.”

Marcus followed, but not without asking more questions:

“What do you mean ‘sometimes’?”

“It’s not important,” Abby tried. No such luck.

“Yes, it is, especially if you need it. Do you need it?” Marcus raised his eyebrow.

“Probably not at my age, but other women do,” Abby told him.

“So just women need it?”

“Women and their babies,” she smiled.

“There’s going to be babies here?” Marcus asked.

“There already is one, but the demand for the tea has risen in the last month or so, yes.” Abby decided that if her surprise didn’t work, it would be by Marcus’s own hand. Damn him and his curiosity.

“Someone is pregnant?” He asked.

“Yes,” Abby answered matter-of-factly.

“When is the baby due?”

“A little over seven months, I think. We don’t really have much to go one except for a conception date,” Abby explained.

“Are you sure about the date?”

“Yes,” she chuckled. She remembered it well, as did he, she was sure. He just didn’t know it yet.

“Oh, ok… Who is it? Is it Clarke?” Marcus asked, slightly bothered by his need to ask that of Abby. It would make her a grandmother and he wasn’t ready to look at her like that. Not when he had so many plans for her tonight.

“No, god no. I’m not even sure Clarke is attracted to men that way anymore… or if she ever was.”

“Bellamy Blake –” Marcus started.

“Is with Echo,” Abby interrupted, covering Marcus with a soft blanket. “The mother-to-be is closer to Charmaine’s age if she hadn’t been in cryo the first time.”

“So she’s older?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘older’, but maybe more ‘experienced’,” Abby told him.

“Does she already have a child?” Marcus asked, much more curious now. He was like a dog with a bone, and he could tell by Abby’s reactions that she was hiding something from him.

“Yes,” Abby tucked the blanket around Marcus. She was fussing with things now. She felt the pressure.

“Does said child live with her?”

“Yes.” Abby was moving books and papers off the bed and placing them on the chair.

“Is that child Clarke?” He knew this would tell him.

Abby sat on the bed and deadpanned.

“No,” she told him. “We’re in good shape Marcus, but not that good.” She thought she had covered her tracks well. That is until Marcus pulled her down and kissed her.

She was too lost in the feel of his lips on hers, of them on her neck and chest, to notice a hand slipping under her shirt to her belly. She only realized it was there when she felt the warm expanse of it resting on her tiny bump. She felt him freeze for a second, lips still against her throat. Her breath caught in her throat.

Marcus smiled against her, breathing out a small chuckle on her soft skin.

“The flowers are for you. That mother-to-be is you,” Marcus said to her. A minute ago he was enjoying the interrogation. Now, it was hitting him that the night they made love was the night they conceived. She had been sober five days, he was finally allowed to see her. After much talking, they had started kissing. Kissing led to touching. Touching led to more talking, and they ended up in bed. It had been both one of the best nights of his life and the worst.

After he had made love to Abby, he curled up on the bed, clothes on for warmth, and watched Abby float around like she was in heaven. He fell asleep with the warm feeling that things were going to be okay between them. That, coupled with the feeling of Abby still on his skin, sent him into a slumber that a bear wouldn’t even have woken from.

Marcus had been so dazed by Abby, he’d forgotten that Vinson wouldn’t be far. It was the only time in his life when his father’s ‘words of wisdom’ had been true. _Loving a woman does nothing for you but get you killed_ , he had heard his father saying when Vinson was tearing into his throat.

He didn’t believe his father, even then. That’s why he told Abby he had forgiven her. He knew she needed it and if the last thing he ever did was tell her she was a good person, then so be it. He loved her with everything in him and he would take every bit of pain for her if he could.

Now, here she was. Safe and healthy with his baby growing inside her belly. The belly under his hand. It was warm and soft. It had a small bulge, which gave him one of his own. He didn’t know how much of love was instinct and how much of it was a social construct, but this felt like something he had never felt before. Marcus removed his lips from Abby’s neck and kissed her lips softly.

“I love you,” they whispered at the same time. Marcus felt like he could cry, ravage her, and make the softest love to her all at the same time.

Mixed up in his emotions, he began kissing Abby again. Softly at first, but it soon became a little needier.

“Marcus?” Abby asked.

“Yes, beautiful?” He had started kissing his way down her body as she spoke, lifting her top slightly with the hand that had been on her belly.

“How did you know?” She asked.

Marcus smiled into the skin between her breasts and began leaving a trail of kisses. He stopped only to pull her shirt over her head, his erection throbbing at the sight of her skin. He felt like a lion who had just found his prize.

“I didn’t,” he said as he kissed just below her belly button. “You just aren’t good at hiding things.”

“I was going to tell you at the beach when you were healed,” Abby said breathily, her eyes closing softly when he started to go lower.

“Why would you want to wait to tell me something this amazing?” Marcus asked, looking at her from the waistband of her pants.

“Because – ah,” she moaned as his lips encased one of her tender nipples, “because I knew you’d try something like this.”

“Were you hoping I would react this way in front of everyone,” Marcus laughed.

“No, I just,” his mouth went to her other nipple and her breath caught again. “Oh, I wanted to be able to do this Marcus."

“We can,” Marcus mumbled from her swollen breast. He was thankful Abby had gone without a bra. Maybe it didn’t fit her anymore, he pandered. They were already significantly larger than they had been.

“We can’t though,” Abby said as her body involuntarily arched towards his mouth.

“Would it hurt you?” He pulled away from her quickly, worried he was about to cause harm to their precious unborn child. He placed his hand protectively on her stomach.

“No!” She answered quickly. “No, it would hurt you.”

“Absolutely not!” He countered.

“I know you feel like you’re on top of the world right now, but you’re still healing, Marcus. You need to be healthy for me.” Abby sat up as she spoke, Marcus moving back slightly to give her space. “For both of us.”

Abby had placed one hand over her belly and the other over her breasts. She was aware of their size and slightly embarrassed. Marcus was the opposite, he was proud. He was the cause of both the baby inside her and the fact that her boobs had become more tantalizing than they had been before. He took in the new curves of Abby’s body and he moved her arm.

“I’m fine, Abby, I swear,” he told her.

Marcus was so close to Abby that he could feel the heat coming off of his body. He took her hand and placed it on his throbbing dick.

“I need you, baby. I need to show you how much I love you and how proud I am right now,” Marcus told her, his own eyes closing and she gently rubbed him.

“We can’t… but I can do something for you,” Abby countered.

“No, Abby. This needs to be us. We need to celebrate this together, at the same time,” he told her. “We need to celebrate the same way we made this happen.”

“When you’re better, ok?” Abby had pulled her hand from his groin, trying to make this less difficult on him.

“I promise I’ll be careful, okay?” He knew he was begging, but he honestly felt fine. “I won’t hurt myself. Just let me love you.”

Abby moaned as one of his hands slid from around her belly to her lower back, pulling her just a tad closer than she was before. Her hand went back to his groin of its own accord. The doctor in her knew he needed more time, but the woman in her said something completely different.

“If you let me do the work, then I guess –” she was forced to stop speaking when her back gently hit the bed.

“Marcus?” It was more of a whimper than a question.

“I love you, Abby,” Marcus whispered as he pressed her down onto the bed.

“I love you, too,” she told him.

There weren’t many words after that. Gentle expressions of satisfaction as he removed the rest if their clothes. Sighs as they took each other in for the first time in so long: Abby’s body beginning to curve in the most feminine of ways, where he was still sleek and lean even in his late forties.

Abby gasped a little when he slid into her wet folds. He groaned as he slid in as far as his body would let him. He wanted to touch every part of her with every part of himself. The feeling, so soft and euphoric, wouldn’t last long and they both knew it.

Each gentle, slow thrust brought them impossibly closer to the edge. Marcus stopped, trying to enjoy this moment a bit longer. He leaned down and captured Abby’s lips in his, rocking their bodies together as Abby came with a force he rarely felt from her. It brought him so close to the edge, but Abby was quick. She had pushed him off suddenly.

“Baby?” He began to ask.

“Shhhh,” Abby told him as she sat down on him, joining them together once again. The sensation elicited a deep groan from Marcus, deep in his throat.

Abby began to rock their bodies together, just the way Marcus had liked for her to do in Polis. She could tell he was close and rocked slower, dragging his orgasm out as long as possible.

Marcus pressed his thumb gently on Abby’s clit and circled it while she rode him. He was a strong man, and he wanted her to come for him again, but he knew it was a futile attempt.

He moaned a soft _Abby_ as he spilled into her. It was slow and torturous, but he wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else in the universe than where he was right now.

After all was said and done, Abby removed herself from Marcus and started talking. That was unusual even for her.

“I’m going to check your stitches, okay?” She whispered in his ear.

“Only if you do it dressed the way you are now,” he said, his eyes still closed with pleasure.

Abby giggled and did her work quickly. She knew it would be better to check them while he was still coming down from the ecstasy of what they’d just done. If he’d popped any stitches, she could repair them with little to no pain.

When she was done, she kissed his lips softly.

“Am I good to go, Doctor Abigail?” He asked with a sweet smile.

“Yes,” she smiled and laid down on her back beside him. It didn’t last long as Marcus registered her soft form beside himself. He slid an arm around her and pulled her close. He was sleepy now, but too happy to be quiet.

“Abby?”

Abby hummed from her place on his chest.

“What last name are we going to give our baby?”

“Yours,” she answered like she’d thought about it before.

“You don’t want yours?” Marcus asked.

“No, I want yours,” she answered him with a smile against his chest.

“There’s a double meaning to that,” Marcus stated.

“You knew it would happen someday,” Abby jested.

“Yes, but I expected to be the one to bring it up. I wanted to ask you,” Marcus teased, pretending to be hurt.

Abby playfully tapped his chest.

“You’re such a Kane, Abby,” Marcus smiled as he felt her moving closer to him.

“I like how that sounds,” Abby whispered.

“Doctor Abigail Kane,” Marcus teased.

“Mrs. Kane sounds better.” Abby surprised him. Marcus opened his eyes.

“Are you trying to tell me you don’t want to be a doctor anymore?” Marcus asked.

“No, I don’t think I want to quit, but I should probably take it easy for a while. Give the baby and me some rest while I can. Besides, I’d get to spend more time reading books and making love to you,” Abby sat up, serious now.

“That’s okay, sweetheart,” Marcus placed his hand on the soft line of her jaw.

Abby leaned in first, and the kiss quickened Marcus’s pulse. He needed to calm himself. He might have gotten away with it once, but now that Abby was back to her senses, she would shoot him down for sure. Abby smiled at him.

“How often do you have to drink that tea for the baby?”

“Just once a day. It’s like a vitamin,” she answered, looking out at the table. ‘It also helps with nausea.”

Marcus rubbed Abby’s arm gently.

“Do you get sick a lot?” He asked.

“Sometimes,” Abby said sheepishly. “But there’s fun stuff, too.”

“You said you hated being pregnant with Clarke because you were always sick,” Marcus said concerned. He wanted Abby to enjoy carrying his child. It was special, and probably the only chance they would have.

“In the beginning I was, just like with this little one. But, it got better, and I’m in a happier environment,” she answered his next question about her post-partum depression after Clarke. It had been bad, and he had been around to see the worst of it. Not to mention, he was no stranger to depression, either. It was common, more so on the Ark than ever in history. These two, though, they tended to feel it more because they were more sensitive than others. They’d just played their cards differently.

“Are you sick now?”

“Only because I haven’t eaten in a while. Are you hungry?” There was a strange light in Abby’s eyes.

“Yes, but where—” He stopped as Abby abruptly stood and started dressing.

“Well, come on! We can’t lay in bed all day!”

Marcus knew he was going to enjoy this.


End file.
